


Apotheosis

by carmell



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: 4+1 Things, Gen, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28381605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmell/pseuds/carmell
Summary: Four things that bring Zagreus closer to godhood, and one thing that doesn't.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 65





	Apotheosis

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it was interesting how dying by finishing a run doesn't increase godhood when in God Mode.

**1\. Stupidity**

... So lava burns. A lot. Good to know.

Hypnos can’t stop laughing long enough to speak. Doubled over and wheezing, he just waves Zagreus through the line of shades. One of them waves an intangible hand through Zagreus’s shoulder repeatedly. He thinks it’s meant to be comforting; mostly it just feels cold and tingly.

“Falling turtle,” it says, pointing at itself. And that does help. A little.

At least until he finds Meg and Than laughing about it together in the lounge over a drink, and hoo boy does he want to go stuff himself back into the Pool of Styx and never come out again.

**2\. The Wrong Choice (is there a right one?)**

_“Zag, man, I’m real sad it had to come to this, I can’t believe you made me do this to you, ya know.”_

The disappointment sounds all too real. Zagreus would probably have a pithy quip to toss back at Dionysus, but he’s too busy with, _ya know_ , dying.

It doesn’t escape his notice that Zeus didn’t lift a finger to help him.

**3\. Kinslaying**

Zagreus is surprised--but also surprised at himself for being surprised--when the sting of his father’s spear through his chest hurts more than it should. He’s died to Theseus and his spear a few times already; he has a baseline for how much this should hurt.

He could place the blame on the unfamiliar chill of winter biting into his wound, or the weakness that the surface seems to drag out of him. There are a lot of potential causes when he thinks about it, and Zagreus would much rather do that than think of his father’s dark, imperious glare as he watched his son bleed out on the sundered snow.

But for all of Zagreus’s faults, of which he admits to many, a tendency towards self-delusion isn't one of them.

**4\. Completely Unexpected Happenings (in other words: _Stupidity, Again_ )**

“So let me get this straight,” says Thanatos, in a voice as pleasant as one ever gets from him. “You fed a gate nearly half of your blood to open it. Voluntarily. And then you--again, voluntarily--decided to trade some of your remaining blood every time you swung your sword. And _then_ you decided to challenge Megaera?”

“Well actually,” says Zagreus, “the gate was already open. I just fed it some blood to be able to pass through. And it’s not as if I really had a choice in fighting Meg.”

“Wrong,” Meg says, flatly. “You can cease your futile attempts at escape at any time. But you won't-”

"-because you're a persistent fool," Thanatos finishes, and sighs.

“Aw,” says Zagreus, running a hand through his hair to shake the Styx water out. “I'm blushing, guys, really.”

**+1. Dying, when it is inexplicable and inevitable; when it is slow only until it is not; when he is only a breath and an inch from everything that he has bled and broken for; when he forgets to say goodbye because there’s still so much that he needs to say-**

_(such a mortal affliction)_

Zagreus blinks Styx red out of his eyes. The vaulted ceiling of the House of Hades is there to greet him, but he immediately slams his eyes shut again. If he tries really, really hard, Persephone’s silhouette is still burned into the back of his eyelids. His mother, so alive. So real.

One more time. He needs to see her again.

So Zagreus heaves himself out of the pool. He aches, all over but especially within, completely unlike anything else he’s felt before. But she’s waiting for him, above, beneath that glorious foreign sun.

So.

One more time.


End file.
